Kansas saw the second highest number of voters turn out for a primary election on record this year, trailing only 2022 when a record number of ballots were cast in a primary election that decided the right to an abortion.
The secretary of state on Tuesday reported that 650,383 people voted in the Aug. 4 primary, the second highest number for a primary election in history compared to the 922,321 who voted in the 2022 primary.
Overall turnout this year was 32.2%, the third highest since 2000. The highest was in 2022 when voter turnout was 47% followed by 2020 when turnout was 34.2%. Turnout for the 2018 primary was 27% when there were two contested primaries for governor.
In 2022, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have removed the right to an abortion from the Kansas Constitution. The 2022 vote came less than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
This year, there were hotly contested Republican and Democratic primaries for governor and an 11-person field vying for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Plus there were more than 40 legislative primaries, some which drew outside spending totaling more than $100,000 in one district.
There also was the constitutional amendment calling for the election of Kansas Supreme Court justices.
The debate over the amendment touched on abortion because opponents said it was an attempt to get around a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling that found that the right to an abortion was protected by the state constitution.
“What brings out people to vote are compelling candidates and compelling issues. We had both,” said Secretary of State Scott Schwab.
“We had some compelling candidates,” he said. “We had a constitutional amendment that was very controversial.”
Millions of dollars were spent on broadcast television and digital advertising during the primary, including about $19 million on the constitutional amendment, about $17 million in the Republican primary for Kansas governor and least $3.5 million in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
